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“Would a glass of wine help wash down what we have to discuss or…”
“Fuck your wine,” I spat, body trembling with rage.
“What a mouth you have.” Gildir chuckled, placing his fingers before his lips. “I must say I can recognise Faenir’s interest in you. You are an interesting boy. I only hope Auriol turns out as thrilling as you.”
It took a moment for my mind to catch up with the name the elf had spewed. Gildir, who until now enjoyed hearing the sound of his own voice, paused as well, revelling as he witnessed me work out what he had said.
“What did you just say?” The storm became a distant memory as a new roaring screamed within my ears. I paced towards the table, needing to hold myself up for fear my legs would give out.
“Your sister, Auriol,” Gildir continued. “Pretty girl I must say. I can speak little of what her mouth can accomplish but I admit her hands, although wild, have great potential.”
I watched as he brought his fingers up to his scratched jaw and rubbed it caringly.
“How do you know her name?”
Gildir raised his glass in toast again, this time gesturing towards where Myrinn stood. “My sister shared such interesting information, like your sister’s name, not that I needed it to find her. Those eyes… One as blue as cobalt, the other as brown as ancient oak. Such mesmerising eyes and the moment I found her in Tithe I knew her to be your kin. Yet the most interesting news was to learn that you are dying, that all my attempts before have been nothing but wasted effort because you would always have perished in the end anyway.”
My legs gave out. I gripped the table, arms suddenly numb, as I tried to hold myself up.
“Arlo.” Myrinn was beside me once more, hands reaching out.
“Get away from me,” I spat; tears welled in my eyes.
“Steady now,” Gildir’s calm and steady voice sliced through me like knife through hot butter. “We do not have long before we are to leave, and I need you in one piece.”
As my hand fell, my fingers wrapped quickly around the ivory handle of a knife. Neither one of them noticed as I slipped it into my sleeve, slightly nicking the skin on my arm as I did so.
“I don’t believe you…” I said finally, breathless as I looked up at Gildir from the floor.
“I do not require you to believe what I have to say. Your trusting of my words will not have an effect on the outcome.”
“But you had a Claim…” I spluttered, although my mind kept telling me I had not seen her with him since the day in Tithe. “The door between our realms is sealed…”
“It was. Sadly, the first human I took was rather boring. Auriol, I am confident, will be completely different,” Gildir said proudly. “The barrier was closed until I convinced Claria to tear it apart to allow me to retrieve mynewClaim. Only she has the power to do so, even if it has made her substantially weaker. Grandmother knows her time is coming to an end and with Frila, likely moments from being slaughtered when Faenir discovers the truth, that will leave only myself left to take the crown.”
“Why?”
Myrinn winced at my broken, meek voice.“I wanted nothing more than Faenir to take the crown. For years I have petitioned for such a thing. But you are dying…” It pained her to say it, visible from the grimace across her face, and it pained me to hear it. “If Faenir loses you I do not believe he would be strong enough to endure. Evelina has had one unstable monarch; it will not survive another.”
“Myrinn saw the light.”
“I was given no choice,” she snapped. “Do not mistake my decision for anything more than wishing to see this world continue. Gildir, you are the last resort, not the preferred.”
“Faenir trusted you.” I glowered, ashamed of the tears that ran down my cheeks. “I trusted you.”
Myrinn pinched her lips into a tight line. Her dark brows furrowed. She did everything to hide the hurt that desired to flash across her face. She failed at it.“Auriol will be safe,” she replied finally. “That is one promise I have not broken.”
Safe?The scratch marks upon Gildir’s face suggested she felt anything but safe. I almost laughed at the notion before the jolting sickness in my stomach silenced me. The fear I had felt when Faenir had first taken me from Tithe flooded back. Did she feel that same fear now? Scared and lost in a new world filled with danger and betrayal. Where families sent one another to the slaughter for the one purpose of feeling the weight of gold upon their heads.
“So, what now?” I asked, clammy hands holding onto the knife I had taken. If Gildir thought the scratches my sister gifted him were bad, then the one I would leave would be more… lasting. “What was the purpose of all of this?”
Gildir turned his head to the side, studying me as though he was a dog looking at a bone. “Do you wish to see your sister again?”
The question caught me off guard. The answer fell from my mouth as though it was the easiest thing I had ever had to say.“Yes.”
Gildir stood from the chair, casting his shadow across me. “Then we must leave before our opportunity fails us.”
He offered me a hand. I stared, stupefied, as though not knowing what to do with such a thing.
